Why Is Jurassic Park 4's Director Being Kept A Secret?

Aside from knowing that it's happening, we don't have a whole lot to go on with Jurassic Park 4. In fact the upcoming 3D re-release is hogging all the attention, which is remarkable in an Internet age where everyone only wants to talk about new movies. In early January Universal officially announced that the movie was happening, but since then all we've managed to learn is that producer Kathleen Kennedy has left the project so she can focus on Star Wars Episode VII. Not exactly an auspicious move for a project that's been struggling along in development for years.

But now HitFix's Drew McWeeny is hearing that the gears are definitely turning to make the movie happen, and he's floating a pretty wild theory based on what he's hearing. The crew that's currently being hired for Jurassic Park 4 isn't being told the director-- a bizarre move for a film that presumably wants to draw people in to work, not scare them off sounding like they haven't hired anyone. It's entirely possible that the studio is in negotiations with a director and simply doesn't want the news to get out yet, and it could easily be a high-profile director, like Oblivion's Joseph Kosinski (as McWeeny suggests) or Justin Lin or anyone else. But could it be the high-profile director? Could it be Spielberg?

After all, the 3D re-release of Jurassic Park makes for a strong reminder of just how amazing Spielberg is directing those giant T-Rexes, and Spielberg still hasn't lined up his post-Lincoln, project, putting the brakes on Robopocalypse and talking only vaguely about future efforts like Tintin. Could he spend 2 or 3 months banging out a third Jurassic Park film for his resume? Or is this just the wildest of wild hopes for Spielberg fans who want good reason to actually anticipate Jurassic Park 4?

I'm going with the latter. But it is interesting that the crew isn't being told the identity of their future director, which gives us some reason to think there's some major director in negotiations for the job. Just maybe not the major director you're hoping for.